“Facebook Audience Network”: More Details Leak On Mobile Ad Network Launch

More details about Facebook’s mobile ad network, which Re/Code reported will be unveiled at the F8 developer conference next week, are coming out.

TechCrunch today, citing”multiple sources”, says the network will be called Facebook Audience Network. TechCruch reports:

It will offer both simple and custom ways for advertisers and other developers to harness the power of Facebook’s ad targeting data across the mobile app market…

Facebook will also bring the ad targeting muscle, allowing advertisers to reach people based on biographical and interest data, and likely with cookie-based retargeting, too.

The revenue split between Facebook and the app developers is not known, but TechCrunch says Facebook will retain a “sizeable chunk” of the ad revenues. Ads will be delivered one of two ways. First, developers will be able to simply add code to make Facebook Audience Network (FAN) the ad delivery network on their apps, replacing whatever other network or solution they had been using. TechCrunch reports that FAN will work with both standard mobile ads and interstitials.

Again citing multiple sources, TechCrunch says the second option for FAN delivery is through custom ad units tailored for a particular app. Facebook will work with developers to create native-feeling ads.

A navigation app could show “promoted locations” pins that are ads for nearby restaurants or businesses. A lockscreen or homescreen replacement for Android could show “suggested apps” that are essentially app install ads. Or a dating app could show ads for television shows in the form of fake profiles of the show’s characters.

The mobile ad network wars are heating up. Last week, Google announced several new features and products specifically for app developers that include ad opportunities through search, display and YouTube. Facebook’s first plug-and-play option could still compete well with Google, Twitter, and all the other mobile ad networks out there. The second custom option could give it the edge advertisers are looking for — a way to break out of the banner mold with custom native-style ads — while still offering deep the targeting capabilities that Facebook is known for.